Flaws And All
by East High Wildcat
Summary: I love you. I always have and I always will- flaws and all. TxG oneshot.


**Okay, this isn't my best work but I really enjoyed writing it. It certainly helped get my creativity working again. Also, my apologies for any grammatical or spelling errors. This one's dedicated to **_Erin_ **for putting up with me without complaint. Hope you guys enjoy! **

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The inky black sky was cloudless, meaning the stars were clearly visible. Twinkling softly, illuminated by the crescent moon. The young couple were lying comfortably on a checkered rug spread over the lush green grass in the park. It had become a tradition of theirs, every year on the eighth of June Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez could be found at the same park simply watching the stars. Gabriella shifted herself in Troy's embrace, resting her cheek on his chest. His arm wrapped even more tightly around her waist, drawing her closer to him. Gabriella giggled lightly, her hair tickling Troy's chin. She felt his chest rise and fall as he too started to laugh.

Just looking at them, nobody would be able to tell the type of hardships they had had to overcome to get where they were today. Troy and Gabriella had known each other since he was five and she was four, growing up as next door neighbours and best friends. When Gabriella had started at East High, one year Troy's junior, it had been difficult for them to maintain a friendship. He was constantly busy with being the school's golden boy and leading the basketball team to victory and she busied herself with her studies, trying to maintain good grades. Their friendship took a backseat for a while, and it had all but ended when Troy's friends classified Gabriella as below them because she had chosen to involve herself in the Scholastic Decathlon.

After he had called her a nerd in front of his friends and several amused bystanders, Gabriella had refused to speak to Troy for two months. She ignored his attempts at reconciliation, and it was then that Troy realized just how much his best friend really meant to him. She accepted his apology, admitting that she had missed him too and for a while that was the end of their problems.

The real trouble came when Gabriella turned sixteen, she wasn't the little girl Troy used to know and boys seemed to be throwing themselves at her from all directions. Of course, she told him all about the boys that asked her out and each time he would feel the need to flatten each one of them. But it was around that time that Troy actually stepped back and took a proper look at Gabriella and he was amazed by what he saw, she had gone from being a cute little kid to a beautiful young woman. He found himself mesmerized every time he looked into her chocolate brown eyes. Each time he looked at her, something new was always brought to his attention and Troy would scold himself for not noticing it sooner. For instance, he had picked up on Gabriella's habit of drawing her bottom lip between her teeth whenever she was particularly nervous or frustrated and had proceeded to tease her everytime she did so.

When Troy's senior year was drawing to a close, he finally realized that his feelings for his best friend had deepened in the eleven years he had known her. He knew that he had fallen in love with Gabriella. Every time she smiled or laughed, Troy could feel his heart beat quicken ever so slightly. He had had trouble admitting that to her, scared that she did not reciprocate the feelings. The way Gabriella had discovered Troy's feelings for her was actually quite comical, she had dropped by his house to see how he was coping with final exams and had walked in on him rehearsing how to confess his feelings to her in the mirror.

That had been the beginning of their relationship, but being together gradually became more and more difficult when Troy began college while Gabriella was breezing through her final year of high school. Countless girls had thrown themselves at him and that had made her uneasy, though Troy attended the University of Albuquerque, Gabriella hardly saw him. He was always calling her to cancel due to increasingly frequent basketball practices and eventually she had snapped. Gabriella had told him that maybe them going their separate ways would be for the best, this had resulted in an ugly argument that left Gabriella storming from the Bolton household with tears streaming down her face.

The two of them had not spoken until the end of the school year, when Troy had appeared on Gabriella's balcony at two o'clock in the morning. They had ended up in a long discussion about compromise and came to an arrangement that both of them could live with. Shortly after, both of their lives were turned upside down with the death of Gabriella's father. Coping with Robert Montez's death had been difficult for both of them, he had been like a second father to Troy. But they made it through together, along with Troy's parents and Gabriella's mother.

Troy and Gabriella had been through the ups and the downs of being a couple, when Troy hit the big time with the LA Lakers it had been put incredible strain on their relationship. They made the decision to move out to Los Angeles to make life easier, but Gabriella struggled with being away from her mother. They argued over the smallest things that didn't end up mattering. Gabriella returned to Albuquerque to clear her head for a month before returning to Troy.

Despite everything they had been through, Troy and Gabriella always found their way back to each other. Troy knew that he would never want another girl, not when he already had someone who was so perfect for him. He knew that he would never find anyone quite like Gabriella, she would put up with his endless basketball practices with only an occasional complaint. She did not complain about him not being there twenty four hours a day, seven days a week because she understood how passionate about basketball he truly was. Gabriella knew all his bad habits and instead of loving him despite them, she loved him because of them. Because Troy Bolton would not be Troy Bolton without his tendency to forget about something he had started to cook on the stove until the smoke alarm began blaring noisily or the fact that he enjoyed using Gabriella as a towel after he finished a particularly strenuous session of basketball.

On Gabriella's twenty third birthday, Troy had gotten down on one knee in front of the entire restaurant and asked her to make him the happiest man in the world by becoming his wife. She had managed to choke out a 'yes' before suffocating him a tight hug and crying out of joy into his shoulder. They had now been engaged for two years.

"Hey Brie?" Troy asked suddenly.

"Yeah?" Gabriella answered, lifting her head from his chest to look at him.

"I know I've asked this before, but are you sure you know what you're getting yourself into?"

A small smile tugged on Gabriella's lips as she pulled herself into a sitting position and studied his face intently. "Yes Troy, I am one hundred percent sure I know what I'm getting myself into. If I wasn't sure, then I wouldn't have said yes."

Troy too, sat up and took her hands in his. "I'm afraid I'm going to screw up Brie. I'm scared I'm going to hurt you," he admitted softly.

"I don't think it's possible to have a relationship without pain Troy, that's just not how life works," she said, her tone gentle. "I've hurt you before and you've hurt me, but we're stronger than that. I think we've proven that to ourselves as well as everybody else. I love you, nothing's going to change that."

"Sometimes I wonder how I was lucky enough to end up with you," Troy sighed contentedly.

Gabriella laughed sweetly, "I'm sure you don't wonder as much as I do Troy. You don't think it never occurred to me that you could have pretty much _any_ girl you want? You and I both know you could Mr. Lakers Superstar, but you're still here with me."

"I would never want to be with any of them Brie, have you _seen_ how much make up they wear?" he asked, wrinkling his nose in distaste.

She laughed again, "Yeah I have and sometimes it makes me feel uneasy, I'll be the first to admit I'm not comfortable with the amount of screaming female fans you have. You know how I am Troy, but I know how much basketball means to you and as long as you're happy so am I."

"I'm touched," Troy teased. "Sometimes I'm not comfortable with the amount of screaming female fans I have either. You would not _believe_ how difficult it is to leave the stadiums without being stalked."

"Well I can, but I'm sure it's not as bad when I'm with you," Gabriella pointed out.

"Gabriella," he said, his voice filled with seriousness, "why do you love me?"

She frowned momentarily as if considering her answer, "I love you because you understand who I am and you accept me for it. I love you because I wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is kiss my forehead. I love you because you can make me smile when all I want do is cry, because you put up with me when I'm upset and don't complain about it.

"I love you because you only notice you're burning whatever you're cooking when the smoke alarm starts being noisy, because you like using me as a towel after a basketball. I love you because as soon as you make plans you forget them, because you've somehow always lost your keys. Heck, I even love you because you don't know how to work the oven and washing machine."

With each reason Gabriella rattled off, the wide grin on Troy's face grew and grew. Any doubts he had had earlier in the evening vanished from his mind.

"So whether or not you like it Troy Bolton, you're stuck with me for life," she finished, squeezing his hands gently.

"You're going to have to get used to the fact that you're stuck with me too," Troy laughed. "I don't want anyone else and I know I never will."

They sat in a comfortable silence, gazing lovingly into each other's eyes. Without warning, he pulled Gabriella into his lap so she was facing him. She squealed, unable to contain her laughter and slapped him lightly on the chest. Their faces were separated by mere centimeters, Troy closed the gap, pressing his lips to hers. Gabriella's arms snaked around his neck in response as his wrapped comfortably around his waist. His tongue ran softly over her top lip and she opened her mouth, allowing him to explore every crevice. Troy pulled her still closer to him. Eventually they pulled away, their foreheads resting against each other with the tips of their noses touching.

"Just for the record Brie, I _do_ actually know how to work the washing machine," Troy said, contradicting Gabriella's statement.

"Oh really?" she asked, amusement dancing across her face. "Then why was there soap all over the tiles when I got home the other night?"

Troy sputtered, struggling to come up with a snappy comeback. Gabriella laughed at his hopeless expression, pressing another tender kiss to his lips.

"It's okay Troy, I love you. I always have and I always will- flaws and all."


End file.
